3rd Annual Fox Park Star Party

The 3rd Annual Fox Park Observatory Star Party is being held August 1-4 at Fox Memorial Park near Potterville, Michigan, SW of Lansing. All but $5 of every registration fee goes directly into the Observatory's fund that is used for upgrading, maintaining and operating this fantastic public observatory. Registration fees include all camping and entrance fees to the park for the entire weekend. Power for any and all astronomical equipment is available at no charge. There is a nice beach, walking trails, decent restrooms (sorry, no showers), playgrounds and plenty of room for tents and RV's. If you don't like to camp, there are hotels available within 5-15 miles in Lansing and Charlotte.
Registration will begin at 4 p.m. on Thursday, August 1, and we will have a short welcome and observatory tour Thursday night. We also hope to have some short talks late afternoon/early evening on Saturday or an "Astro Chat" type of session before finishing the night off with a small door prize drawing and hopefully a night of clear skies. An official agenda will be coming along shortly once everything is finalized.

If you are a vendor, there are no additional charges beyond the registration fee, however, we do ask that you donate a small door prize. Please e-mail Jason Blaschka at jb.foxpark@gmail.com if you are interested in vending at this event.

While Fox doesn't offer the pristine skies of northern Michigan, the skies are still more than dark enough for serious observing and imaging. Limiting Magnitude at Zenith is approx 5.5 to 5.7. The location is close to Interstate's 69 and 96 so it is easily accessible for all the major cities of southern Michigan and beyond. The main purpose of the event is to give all of us obsessed imagers and observers a long weekend to hang out and observe/image our night skies while at the same time helping a great facility continue to introduce our great hobby of amateur astronomy to hundreds of new people every year. Last year's star party funds helped us purchase a PST for the observatory, allowing us to do daytime activities for the 1st time since we opened.

Another star party weekend has come and gone. It was a great weekend with 2 great nights of clear skies. A special thanks goes out to D'jar Meteorites, Telescope Support Systems and Astronomics for sponsoring and supporting our Star Party with some great door prizes as well as to the Friends of Eaton County Parks for all the help in keeping the observatory up and running. Already looking forward to FPSP IV!